The following was written by COS Regional Captain James Peters. This was originally published in The Daily News-Record.
Our Founding Fathers designed the three separate branches of our federal government so that no one person could ever hold ultimate power over our nation.
When our legislative, executive, and judicial branches are operating as designed, they each create checks and balances on the other two.
By ratifying the Tenth Amendment to our Constitution those men also put limits on the power of the federal government.
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people,” the amendment says.
You don’t have to understand everything about our Constitution to realize that agencies of our federal government are exerting power in many areas beyond their authority.
As voting citizens, we elect Senators and Representatives to write the laws that govern our land.
Unfortunately, many of the “rules, regulations, and laws” we are required to live by were not written by Congress but were instead created by nonelected officials in various departments of our government.
Before America’s first presidential inauguration in 1789, many members of Congress had suggested George Washington be called “Elective majesty, sacred majesty, elective highness, illustrious highness, serene highness or His highness, the President of the United States of America, and Protector of their Liberties.”
Fortunately, Washington insisted on the more modest title, “Mr. President.”
In an interview with the leading Hispanic network Univision on October 25, 2010, President Barack Obama stated, “I think it’s important to remind everybody that, what I’ve said previously, I am not a king, I am head of the executive branch of government. I am required to follow the law, and that is what we’ve done.”
The problem is his administration refused to enforce laws requiring the deportation of more than 800,000 illegal aliens.
Many presidents from both parties have acted like kings by using “executive orders” to circumvent the very laws already on the books.
James Madison wrote in the Federalist Papers, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.”
It is time for the citizens of the United States to work with their state legislators to put restrictions on our federal officials.
Article V of our Constitution gives us both the right and the responsibility to check the tyrannical power being used by those in Washington D.C.
We need to use the peaceful provision in Article V to call a convention of states to propose amendments that will limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government.
In January of 1649, Parliament declared King Charles I guilty of attempting to “uphold in himself an unlimited and tyrannical power to rule according to his will, and to overthrow the rights and liberties of the people,” and he was sentenced to death by beheading.
We don’t need to fight a war as we did against King George III or cut off anyone’s head, we have Article V.
We need 34 state legislatures to pass similar resolutions to limit the terms of office for federal officials, bureaucrats, and members of Congress, to impose fiscal restraints on the federal government, and to limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government.
Convention of States Action is now more than halfway to that goal with 19 states passing legislation to hold a convention to propose amendments to our Constitution.
Help our state legislators realize the power they possess to save our nation.
Sign the Convention of States petition at conventionofstates.com and tell your state delegate and state senator to pass the Convention of States resolution in the 2024 Virginia legislative session.
